Tuesday, 11 January 2011

I've been talking a lot about how traditional ads can offer a gateway to a wider digital content experience for the active audience who want to get involved more deeply. Tagging print ads and TV creative with things like Facebook addresses and QR codes have been examples of this, but now Google have taken things further with their latest iteration of mobile app Google Goggles.

Google Goggles is a mobile app designed to let users conduct visual searches. The mobile user opens the app, takes a photo of something and the Google Goggles app then returns information in the form of related searches. This has been seen to work for everything from landmark buildings to famous works of art to product bar codes (I posted about Google Goggles and how it works here.)

The latest edition of Google Goggles is now designed to offer links and relevant information about products featured in newspaper and magazine advertising too - regardless of whether the ads have QR barcodes or not.

This was an experiment, but Google have now expanded the program so that Google Goggles will show links and mobile information in response to photographing ANY print advertisements from major US magazines or newspapers since August 2010. This brings interactivity to any traditional ad regardless of whether a digital call to action is embedded in the print execution. This opens a whole range of possibilities, breathes new life into print formats and should be a further spur to action to those who are yet to embrace mobile optimised versions of their websites.

Amazing technology and another sign (if we need one) of how everything is fusing and linking together. If any print ad can automatically act as a mobile referral, there are some interesting times just around the corner!

......and Google Goggles can now solve Sudoku puzzles too (just photograph the puzzle and the Goggles app will provide the right answers almost instantly!!!!!)

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